Now the weapons and equipment of the Imperial Army, although the performance is not as good as the World War I period in later generations, but this is inferior in performance, not inferior in consumption, for example, rifles, the current 1872 Northern rifle, and the various rifles in the First World War in later generations There may be a slight performance gap, but the rate of fire is about the same, which means that the consumption of bullets is also about the same.

During World War I, the Germans used up the ammunition reserves of the front-line troops within a few weeks of the start of the war, while the artillery units used up the 1,000 rounds of ammunition they had in reserve before the war in just one and a half months.

Compared with the consumption of the First World War, the consumption of the Imperial Army is still a lot, but it is still inferior.

Shen Chiyun looked at the ammunition consumption reports of the front-line departments, his brows were tightly furrowed, so that several generals next to him didn't dare to say a word when they saw it, for fear of making him angry.

After half a ring, Shen Chiyun said with a gloomy face: "This group of losers, our army's family is going to be wiped out by them!" ”

These shells and bullets are all money, and the purchase price of a 75-millimeter artillery shell is more than 8 yuan, and the purchase price of a 100-millimeter metal bullet is several yuan, and as for those large-caliber artillery shells, the price is even higher, and the price of a 120-millimeter cannon and a 150-millimeter howitzer is several tens of yuan each.

This cannon has passed, but it is the salary of ordinary people for a month, or even a few months!

Artillery shells and bullets are so expensive, the army used to save and save, only to squeeze out money to stock up on these ammunition, originally hoping to rely on these ammunition to be able to fight until the end of the war, but now it is good, it has only been a week since the start of the war, and the front-line troops have almost run out of ammunition.

What do you want Shen Chiyun to do?

Even if the army still has ammunition reserves, but the army size is millions of dollars, it is impossible to transfer all the ammunition to the Siberian side, and even if it is transferred, it will definitely need to be replenished back at that time, otherwise, an army will not have strategic reserves, and if there is a war, will it be difficult to wait for the shells produced in the ice factory before the troops go to the front?

The consumption of ammunition is so large, it is estimated that it will not be able to sustain it by relying on the army's own family funds, is it really necessary to open up to the cabinet and the people on the navy side?

Shen Chiyun felt annoyed when he thought of this.

The current empire is no longer the time when the army was dominant, and I think the army regarded the navy as an army navy, and the cabinet was just the army's money bag.

But by now, the navy has long grown into an independent force in the country, not to mention the face of the army, and even because of the distribution of naval and army expenses, the navy and army have had frequent contradictions in recent years.

Not to mention the elm heads of the cabinet, they all look at the money like their own sons, in addition to the fixed annual military expenses, if they want the cabinet to pay even a dime more, it will cost them their lives.

In this case, it will not be easy for the army to obtain the allocation of temporary military funds without incident, and if the cabinet and the navy resolutely oppose it, it is estimated that Your Majesty will not expect to get the money smoothly unless he personally decides it.

And as a courtier, if he can't get support in these matters, but has to rely on His Majesty to make a holy judgment himself, then this courtier must be an unqualified courtier, and it is estimated that it won't be long before the top of the army will have to change blood.

People who are familiar with imperial politics know that at any imperial meeting, Lin Zhe can not open his mouth without speaking, and he will not make a decision without making a decision, often waiting for the courtiers to quarrel on their own, and then come to a conclusion, Lin Zhe will take advantage of the situation to agree, that is to say, Lin Zhe's role is that he is an arbiter, and he will never personally participate in the competition unless it is very necessary.

This is not to say that Lin Zhe doesn't like to control the situation, or that he can't control the situation, but it is a means to balance the internal factions.

And the military and political dignitaries of the empire also know this, so on weekdays, if they can not trouble Lin Zhe's side, they will never go to Lin Zhe's side to ask for support.

At the beginning, His Majesty personally made a holy judgment and prepared to launch the Siberian War, which was already quite excessive, if this time the army still needs His Majesty's help to be able to obtain temporary war funds, I am afraid that the government and the opposition will say that the army has no one, so that Your Majesty will be embarrassed!

Shen Chiyun put down the report in his hand, and then said: "Call the armies on the front line and let them pay attention to the rhythm!" ”

After thinking about it, he said again: "Call Nanjing, this matter has to be decided by a few of their old men in Nanjing!" ”

Although Shen Chiyun is also a marshal, but when it comes to the ranking within the army, he is the lowest-ranked marshal, and now there are six army marshals in the empire, all of whom are army veterans during the Unification War, Shi Qingxuan, Xu Yanqing, Lin Chengfei, Shi Langyi, Bian Chengxun, plus him Shen Chiyun.

Although these marshals no longer preside over their daily work on weekdays, they will only be temporarily pulled out when there is a war and serve as the commander of one side, such as Shen Chiyun.

This time the matter of the Siberian War is not the business of Shen Chiyun alone, but the business of the entire army, and others will naturally not ignore it.

Several army marshals on the Nanjing side also frowned when they learned that the ammunition consumption of the war was far beyond expectations, and that the army's internal reserves were already a little tight, and they needed to replenish the temporary war expenses.

"It seems that we have to talk to the Navy and the Cabinet about it, and we can't let the front-line soldiers fight with empty guns!" Shi Qingxuan touched his bald head, then turned to Xu Yanqing and said: "Lao Xu, you and Lao Lin are sons and daughters, go back and tell him that there should be so many thousands of ship-building funds on their navy's side, let him vacate it first for our army to use first, and pay them back with some interest next year!" ”

Xu Yanqing smiled bitterly: "What's the use of this child's family?" Lin Dabiao, you don't know, although he looks like a good man, but it is related to the shipbuilding funds of their navy, how can he be willing to take it out for us to use! ”

"If you want me to see, you have to find the cabinet for this matter, they don't say every day how much the economic development is better, and the taxes are more and more, I don't believe that the Ministry of Finance has no savings to spare, and we don't want much, it's about 30 or 40 million!" Lin Chengfei on the side said the same.

"Thirty or forty million? The group of people in the cabinet would rather hit the pillar and give us a dead admonition, and it is impossible to give it to us in vain! Xu Yanqing frowned as she spoke: "Over the years, it has become more and more unpleasant!" ”

The most prominent dukes and marshals in the empire are now frowning for war expenses.

In the next few days, these bigwigs also had to pull down their faces, and then find Lin Dabiao from the navy, Xue Huan, Jiang Daoquan, Guo Longyun and others from the cabinet, trying to reach an agreement with them before the imperial meeting.

After this contact, Shi Qingxuan and the others sighed, this time for the Siberian War, their army paid a lot of price, in order to win the financial support of the cabinet and the navy at the imperial meeting.

The Army made a concession to the Navy, no longer insisting on opposing the Navy's preparation of divisional and brigade-level Marines, allowing the Navy to establish two Marine Brigades, and the Army also promised to properly support the Navy's southward policy after the Siberian War.

On the Cabinet side, the Army promised to stop the current act of secretly expanding its establishment, demanding that after the end of the Siberian War, the Army strictly control the size of the army to less than one million, and also demanded that in the next few years, it must never provoke an external war without authorization, and that the Army must cooperate with the progress of diplomatic negotiations under the auspices of the Cabinet, and absolutely must not abandon the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and lead the course of the war without authorization.

Naturally, these agreements are not written documents, and they are all oral agreements between several bigwigs.

It was only after the army paid a considerable price that it reached an internal compromise with the navy and the cabinet, so that these people in the navy and the cabinet not only did not oppose the proposal for temporary war expenses for the war against Russia in the new round of imperial meetings, but also offered to take the initiative to help.

The total amount of this temporary war fee is expected to be 40 million yuan, and the first batch is about 10 million yuan, and if this 10 million yuan is used, it will be difficult for the Ministry of Finance to raise it temporarily, so it will first be embezzled from the navy's shipbuilding funds, and this is the scope of the navy's initiative to help.

The Ministry of Finance, on the other hand, raised the remaining 30 million yen by raising existing reserves, printing more banknotes, and issuing treasury bonds, and was ready to raise more war expenses.

After all, no one knows how long the war will last, and it is always good to be able to prepare more funds.

After obtaining the support of temporary war funds, the money was quickly turned into orders, and then flew to the major factories, with the current production capacity of these domestic arsenals, as long as there are sufficient orders, then it can be re-exploded in a short period of time to produce the maximum output, and then used to supply the army.

Prior to this, the army had urgently mobilized ammunition reserves from other parts of the country to transport them to the front line, especially those in Mongolia, Zhili Province, and Northeast China.

This is the only way to avoid the lack of ammunition in the front-line troops!

And when the Imperial Army had a headache for the huge consumption of ammunition, these large amounts of ammunition were also exchanged for the effect they should have.

Less than five days after the start of the battle, the troops of the Fifth Army were already under the city of Nebuchu, and the rest of the Fifth Army had also made a good start in several other important towns.

In the direction of Lake Belga, the cavalry vanguard of the 35th Division had already gone straight to the shore of Lake Belga, while the main force of the 35th Division was already in Tuchak, and had twice routed the outlying forces of the Russian army, and finally surrounded nearly 6,000 Russian troops in Tuchak.

Now the 35th Division is launching an onslaught on Tuchak, trying to completely encircle and annihilate this Russian army, and if it can succeed, it will basically declare that more than half of the Russian forces in the south direction of Lake Berga have been wiped out.

If you look at the actions of the previous week, the offensive of the Imperial Army was quite fierce and progressed very smoothly.

When the soldiers arrived in Nebuchu, the front-line generals had already reported to Nanjing, saying that they would go down to Nebuchu within ten months! (To be continued.) )